Wednesday, December 2, 2015

The Trouble With Santa

What Should I Tell My Kids about Santa Claus?

There has been debate among Christians for a long time about Santa Claus. What should we as parents tell our children about the big, jolly, gift giver from the North Pole?

From when I was a kid, I still remember an interesting exchange that occurred between my parents and a young couple who had recently begun attending our church. I don't know how the issue came to the forefront but I remember the gist of the conversation.

The young couple felt strongly that Christian parents should not teach their children to believe in Santa. They argued that it is lying to convince your children that a make believe Santa is real.

My parents on the other hand, had been raised with the full Santa treatment. I remember my mom saying that she had believed in Santa until she was 18 years old! Wow! Can you say, "gullible"? Anyway, neither of my parents saw any harm in what they experienced and they did not hesitate to propagate the Santa hoax with me and my siblings.

Older siblings who had already learned the truth were expected to keep it hush, hush so the younger ones could enjoy the excitement of Santa visiting with gifts for everyone. For many parents the fun and excitement that believing gives their children outweighs other considerations.

So, which is it? Is it better to let your children enjoy the thrill of gifts left by Santa, though fake. Or, is it best to stick with the facts?

Early in our marriage, my wife and I discussed this issue and came to our own conclusion about what was best. Maybe our idea will work for you as well.

Let me begin by saying that my wife Kayla adores Santa. At this very moment we have a little plastic, solar powered Santa in our dining room window sill. Every morning when the sun comes up he starts doing the hippy, hippy shake. "Rock on dude!" I have a cool Santa hat but that's as far as I go.

We decorate for Christmas with Santa. We play Christmas music about Santa. We even read Santa stories to our our kids when they were little. We had fun with Papa Elf...and still do.

One thing that we have done differently then some parents is that we did not go to great lengths to teach our children that Santa is real. We shared the Santa story as a story and tried not to equate it with reality. Even so, all of our kids say they had a short stage of believing Santa was real.

There are two big reasons why this was our approach.


1.  First of all, we didn't want to send false messages to our impressionable little ones. Think about it, if we teach our children that Santa is real it is only a matter of time until they learn otherwise. The subtle message they have received from us is that mom and dad may or may not be telling the truth when they say, "This is someone you should believe in."

During those same formative years we are teaching our children about Jesus. We are asking them to believe in someone they can't see. We are asking them to believe in someone who lived on earth a couple thousand years ago but who now lives in heaven.

My concern is that we could plant a seed of doubt in our children's minds about Jesus if we give them the full Santa treatment and then say, "Psyche, just kidding".

2.  Secondly, we felt that we could have plenty of fun with Santa without trying to convince our kids that it was a true story. In the same way that children enjoy other make believe stories, like Dr. Seuss, they can enjoy Santa, Rudolph and Frosty.

I recommend reading and enjoying these stories with your children! Let them know they are fun, make believe stories. You can be assured they won't be damaged or disappointed by the truth.

My wife and I have special memories of sitting with our toddlers in our laps, reading great kids stories.

I highly recommend reading to your children starting at a very early age. There are studies to verify that this simple activity helps children become smarter, happier and even more well behaved. It's a great bonding time also!

And, yes Dads...even you can do it!